On my trip to England this past month I played courses designed mostly by Herbert Fowler (1856-1941 and H.S. Colt. Herbert Darwin called Fowler, “the most daring and original designer of all time.”
Fowler came to golf late in life. He didn’t begin to play until age 35 and designed his first course while in his forties. Hid first designs were at Walton Heath; old and new. The Old may be his finest design, although the New is very similar. It just isn’t as stern a test. In addition he designed both courses at The Berkshire, Saunton East, Cruden Bay, and a complete redesign of Old Tom’s Royal North Devon . I played those courses on other trips. This time I played some of his lesser know courses. They included, RND again, (I have an overseas membership there), Beau Desert, Delamere Forest, and Bull Bay. If Beau Desert and Delamere Forest were in Surrey they would be in the British top 100. His designs require the player to strategize his way around the course. Brute strength can get you in trouble.
Beau Desert and The Berkshire (Red and Blue) are built on similar hilly heathland terrain. The others have terrain all their own. His routings verge on genius. He utilizes the natural terrain brilliantly but he is not constricted by it. He is one of the few architects that can’t be typed. Each course is a fresh canvas. He rarely uses the same theme twice. He will route the course so some holes are uphill, downhill, along the side of a hill, a blind shot over a hill or knob to knob. Rarely do two holes go the same direction in a row. If they do, the terrain will make the player hit different kind of shots.
If there is one consistency in his design it is his penchant for making knob to knob par threes and short par fours. The ninth at Beau Desert is a perfect example of a great short par four. It is only about 260 yards knob to knob. It begs and entices the player to drive the green. There are devilishly placed bunkers short and left but there is also a green patch of fairway up the right side. Miss the green and you have a tricky long bunker shot. If the tee ball misses on the right, the it will trickle down the hill and leave the player with a testy little uphill shot to a undulating green. Hit the green or a greenside bunker and you’re looking at birdie.
His bunkering varies from course to course. At Bull Bay in northwest Wales, he only created ten bunkers. He didn’t need anymore. He routed the land through and over rock outcroppings and gorse bushes. He does, however, utilize cross-bunkers more than most but wanted an avenue fronting the green. In addition, he liked his bunkers flashed up so that the ball would generally roll to the bottom of the trap. And at Bull Bay he put rock outcroppings as fairway hazards instead of cross-bunkers. For instance, at Bull Bay the tee shot at #2 is blind to a fairway that has a rock outcropping in the middle of the fairway that can fling a tee shot left or right. You couldn’t get away with it today, but it is great fun. The 325 yard eight hole may be one of the most unusual holes I have ever played. It is almost impossible to describe but here goes. The tee is on high ground and is a downhill shot. The player is faced with two options: hit a tee shot about 180 yards down the hill over gorse bushes short of a little stream. That will leave the player with an uphill shot of about 150 yards over a rocky hill to a smallish green. The other option is to risk hitting a driver over that rocky hill to a fairway on the same level. That will leave the player some 100 yards to the green. I could have played that hole all day and never have tired of it. Obviously, he is not afraid to try something different.
Unfortunately most of his designs are in England and Wales. His most famous work in the US are Eastward Ho! and LACC with George Thomas.